12:17 AM,
Nov. 30, 2012

Scott Delalma, an environmental maintenance worker with the Yonkers Parks/DPW, operates a mulching mower Thursday at Grant Park in Yonkers. To try to reduce leaf pickup costs, municipalities are deploying many options from mulching to having residents bag their own leaves and drop them off at a recycling center.

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Heavy fall foliage and shrinking municipal budgets have many local governments looking for ways to cut their leaf-collection costs - and homeowners likely will be picking up the slack.

In Westchester County, New Rochelle is considering doing away with leaf vacuuming and requiring property owners to bag their leaves for curbside pickup, a requirement enforced in just a handful of nearby municipalities including Yonkers.

White Plains tried to enact the same cost-saving measure in 2009, but public outcry spurred the city to reinstate curbside loose-leaf collection the next year. ...